With support and initial funding from the Vancouver Foundation, United Way of the Lower Mainland, the YWCA Metro Vancouver and the YMCA of Greater Vancouver, Kershaw has launched a national speaking tour in collaboration with YMCAs in all provinces across the country. The tour engages Canadians from coast to coast, asking Does Canada Work for All Generations?
Kershaw invites Canadians to consider carefully what can be done to address the reality that Canada has become a country in which it is harder to raise a family today than it was a generation ago. With Lynell Anderson, he released 10 reports last October — one for each province- which show that incomes have stalled for young Canadian couples even though far more young women contribute employment income than they did in the 1970s. With stalled household incomes, young families must pay for higher housing prices. This leaves a generation raising young children that is squeezed for time at home, squeezed for income after housing, and squeezed for services like child care.
In partnership with Dr. Kershaw, YMCAs across Canada are hosting policy dialogues that invite citizens to become better informed about the declining standard of living for the generation raising young kids, and to consider why UNICEF ranks Canada among the weakest countries when it comes to investing in policy for families with young children. After diagnosing the decline in the standard of living, Kershaw describes a New Deal for Families that proposes three policy changes: New Mom and New Dad Benefits; $10/day child care; and Flex-Time. He and Anderson have analyzed what these policy changes will mean for various families in all 10 provinces, and have analyzed the costs and benefits of investing in the New Deal in each province.
As Kershaw explains, the New Deal encourages Canadians to “think like a beaver.” “Beavers build dams, even though no beaver lives in them. Why?” asks Kershaw. “Because the dam creates a reservoir on which the entire community of beavers depends for its standard of living. For most of our history, Canadians thought the same way, building social policy as a ‘national dam’. It’s time we renew our beaver logic to adapt to the seismic shift in the standard of living with which the generation raising young kids now struggles.”
Do you want the Think Like a Beaver Tour to stop in your community?
Tour stops include (all hosted by Ys if not otherwise stated):
Surrey BC, November 25 2011
Vancouver BC, December 1 2011
Edmonton AB, December 8 2011
Calgary AB, January 10, 2012
Halifax NS, January 19 & 20 2012
Victoria BC, January 24 2012
National Webinar, January 31 2012, hosted by the ECD Monitoring Network
Vancouver BC, February 2 2012, hosted by the Early Years Conference
Ottawa ON, February 7 & 8: 3 events: Government of Canada Standing Committee for Health; YMCA & YWCA of National Capital Region; National Association of Children and Youth
Fernie BC, March 5 & 6, hosted by East Kootenay Success By Six
Kitchener ON, March 13
Toronto ON, March 15
Regina SK, March 20
Winnipeg MB, March 22
Abbotsford BC, April 27 2012, hosted by the Abbotsford Child & Youth Committee
Barrie ON, May 1 2012 Kamloops BC, May 10 2012, hosted by Cities Fit for Children
Kamloops BC, May 26 2012, hosted by the United Way BC regional meeting
Regina SK, May 30 2012, hosted by Building Partnerships for Safer Communities
Ridge Meadows BC, June 9 2012, hosted by the Ridge Meadows Early Child Development Forum
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